News and Information

10/06/2016

Happy Twitter-versary (for the nth time around this time), Jack Dorsey. Things haven’t been going well, it seems, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel — Twitter may be acquired by someone somewhere in the tech (or entertainment) industry, perhaps.

To be perfectly fair, the company Dorsey inherited from his predecessor(s), including an array of former product leads as well as CEO Dick Costolo, wasn’t in that great of shape to begin. But Dorsey’s return was heralded as a return to form for Twitter, in the hope that he might come in and shake things up to the point that the company would finally turn around and make Wall Street Happy.

So in the last month or so, a lot has been made as to whether the company should remain independent or whether it makes sense as part of a larger empire that can devote more resources into growing it. There are natural arguments for each — Twitter is one of the go-to sources for news (and also sports!), but a company like Salesforce could pump additional life into it to get that user base growing more broadly. And perhaps the company once again needs new fresh blood.

And let’s look at the user base the company reported last quarter, which has been the main sticking point for Wall Street and Twitter:

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So, barely any growth whatsoever (and even a small drop-off at one point). Hmm. What about revenue growth? Under the leadership of Adam Bain this wasn’t a huge problem for a while, though everything still stems back to user growth.

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And Twitter’s still losing money:

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One last quick one, which isn’t exactly a chart — how much it’s paying for stock-based compensation:

So, you may be sensing a little bit of a trend: a big shift to live video, some attempts to combat harassment and other problems (though it hasn’t worked), and of course lackluster results under Dorsey.

It’s been a tough run for Dorsey, which may eventually be capped off with a final sale to a company. Anything can change at the last minute, of course, but for the time being it seems like Twitter needs to right itself — whether that’s through increasingly drastic internal changes or bringing in new leadership under new ownership to do just that. And there’s always next year!

Twitter’s third-quarter earnings come out later this month, and it’s kind of hard to believe that this may be the final time we see the guts of the company for the foreseeable future. It may end with a final sign-off like LinkedIn:

“In light of the pending merger, LinkedIn will not be updating its outlook for fiscal 2016 and will not be hosting a conference call for its second quarter 2016 business results.”

COMMENTARY: If you've followed my blog posts about Jack Dorsey and Twitter's performance, you know that I have not been very complimentary towards Jack Dorsey, and have been just as critical about Twitter's performance. Not to be forgotten is the number of key staffers who have chosen to leave the company since Dorsey took over as CEO. In addition to the exits, revenues have failed to meet investor expectations, with the stock price dropping to near lows, and Monthly Active Users (MAU's) stalling just over 300 million users since he took over the helm.

Although Twitter has aggressively moved towards more video content (Vine and Periscope), including live sporting event streams, at its face, the overall Twitter experience has remained about the same. The homepage is still an endless torrent of tweets, without any organization or personalization. It is very time consuming to review this mountainous torrent of tweets. The result is that users are missing out on news and information that is important to them.

Twitter now allows users to attach images and videos to their tweets without affecting the 140 character limit. This is a good thing, but only a superficial improvement that a lot of users don't even notice. This is not enough to improve the overall user experience and serve as an inducement to increase user engagement and attract new users.

Twitter requires radical changes not just superficial improvements. It's a huge product design problem that must be resolved. You literally need to go back to square one and introduce an entirely new Twitter with a user interface (UI) that is unrecognizable from what you see today, and that is simple, user-friendly and intuitive. Here are a few changes that I think are greatly needed.

To combat the avalanche of tweet traffic, users should be required to classify their tweets by type (example: politics, social media, big data, legal, sports, games, fashion, personal, etc.). Users should be able to select a type before they can post it. I follow political tweets a lot, so I should be able to view all political tweets and see what's trending within that type (example: #VPdebate, #presidentialdebate, #potus, #trump, #clinton, etc.).

Live streaming event tweets should be separate from other tweets so that they clearly stand out. They should also be classified by type, and users should be able to see which live streaming events are trending (example: #presdentialdebate, #sundaynightfootball, #spaceXlaunch, #liveearthconcert, etc.).

An idea that I have proposed before includes classified ads. Twitter could be a great classified ad site, but classified ads are lost in the torrent of tweets. Classified ads would appear separate from regular news and information tweets, and would be classified by type (example: rentals, autos, household, garage sales, personals, etc.). Classified ads would be a great way for Twitter to generate additional revenues that could rival those of Craigslist. I don't know why this hasn't been done before. If I don't want to see ads within my tweet stream, I should be offered the option of paying a small fee for that privelege. Another potential revenue stream.

There you have it. If you have other ideas, don't hesitate to post them in the comment section.

09/12/2013

By offering buyers and sellers a free alternative to paid listings in newspapers, online classifieds site Craigslist saved users about $5 billion from 2000-2007, while costing local newspapers the same amount in lost classified advertising revenues, according to a new study by professors at the NYU Stern School of Business and Harvard Business School.

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The study, titled “Responses to Entry in Multi-Sided Markets: The Impact of Craigslist on Local Newspapers,” explored the impact of Craigslist by analyzing newspaper publisher results over time, focusing on their degree of reliance on classifieds and the timing of Craigslist entry in their market, among other factors.

Newspapers that were more reliant on classified revenues saw a bigger drop-off after Craiglist entered their markets.

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Overall, local newspapers that relied heavily on classifieds suffered an average 20.7% drop in classified advertising rates after the entry of Craigslist in their markets. Moreover, the migration of their classifieds business to Craigslist evidently had secondary impacts on local newspapers, as it was correlated with increasing subscription prices, which rose an average 3.3%; decreasing circulation, which fell an average 4.4%; and decreasing display ad rates, which fell an average 3.1%

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In terms of the chain of causation, diminishing demand for classifieds may also have diminished the incentive for consumers to buy single copies or subscribe to newspapers, since they no longer required their listings.

At the same time, price increases intended to offset losses in classified revenues further depressed subs. This trend, in turn, put downward pressure on display advertising rates.

In another secondary effect, newspapers that were heavily reliant on classifieds were also more likely to attempt to differentiate their content from competing newspapers, presumably in an effort to reinvent their value proposition to readers in the absence of classifieds. They were also less likely to make their content available for free online -- perhaps as part of a strategy to drive readers to the print edition and thus prop up print display ad rates.

The authors note,

"These results are still relevant today -- and not just to newspaper publishers -- as the boundaries between media industries are blurred and advertisers are able to reach relevant consumers through a variety of platforms, such as TV, the Internet and mobile devices.”

COMMENTARY: This article begs the question: How long will Craigslist continue to offer mostly free classifieds? Makes you wonder just what Craigslist's ad revenues would be if they charged something for those "free" classified ads.

For building a suite of communications apps (instant messaging) that 300 million Chinese are talking through. That massive audience has flocked to Tencent's WeChat (or Weixin, as it's known in China), the Chinese Internet giant's suite of social networking plug-ins, in less than two years. Why? WeChat is less expensive, clearer, and faster than calling people on the phone. Late last spring, Tencent opened up its platform to other developers to create cool things for WeChat. Plus, Tencent's aggressive international rollout--rare for a Chinese company--has added millions of expats who can now communicate with folks back home, increasing its popularity. In America, WeChat is a top 20 free social networking app in Apple's App Store.

For unlocking our image obsession. A year ago, the social scrapbooking site was dubbed the fastest-growing web service in history. Where do you go from there? Up. Pinterest is now one of the top 50 most-visited sites in the U.S., and retailers are excited. The average purchase off a pinboard nets more than double those off a wall post or a tweet. Late last year, it simplified the process for companies to create pinboards. In January, it made its first aquisition, the recipe site Punchfork. Meanwhile, the Pinterestization of the web continues--a trend as hot as Pinterest itself.

For reinventing how news (and advertising) is shared. When he founded BuzzFeed in 2006, serial entrepreneur Jonah Peretti--who'd previously cofounded the Huffington Post--thought of it as a new-media mad-science lab. Social sharing was the next big distribution channel, he reasoned, and BuzzFeed was a place to create silly shareable content. The site is still brimming with listicles and cat videos, but over the past year, BuzzFeed has undergone a remarkable transformation: It's now also a serious news site and a pioneer in the world of social advertising.

For letting its community help fill the racks. Customer engagement proves profitable for Susan Gregg Koger and her husband Eric, founders of the virtual thrift shop turned e-commerce success story. Through its Be The Buyer program, products brought to market through customer voting sell twice as much. ModCloth took that to the next level in 2012 by letting the community actually submit designs too. Visit any of their social platforms, from Facebook to Twitter, and you'll see creative interactive campaigns and a commitment to user engagement.

For creating a socially-savvy e-commerce startup factory. The name is not an accident. For CEO Michael Jones and his partners, launching disruptive e-commerce companies means deep analysis of big bets. They also specialize in identifying the best social tools to create fans and turn them into customers and brand advocates. For example, Heather Lipner's Uncovet harnesses social data to make a virtual, personalized boutique for each of her 200,000-plus subscribers; Hello Insights helps companies use a data-driven approach to turn Pinterest users into shoppers; Dollar Shave Club's Michael Dubin created the viral marketing video of the year for his subscription shaving gear.

For evolving into the social commerce destination for design wares. Visit Fab's website, and you find something akin to a social network for the design-obsessed. In fact, Fab started off as a social network, so you could say social media is baked into its DNA. CEO Jason Goldberg and cofounder Bradford Shellhammer constantly reimagine Fab, which matured last year from three-day flash sales to dozens of online boutiques of design-centric products for such niches as foodies and pet lovers.

For proving that ads and great content can mix in social media. Last May, the image-heavy, meme-tastic social network entered the fraught world of social media advertising--but demanded that brands act like its users. That meant creating visual, beautiful, fun, shareable content. The response was impressive: By year's end, Tumblr had vaulted into the top 10 most-visited websites in America, with more than 80 million blogs that net more than 700 million visits and almost 18 billion page views.

For being the Match.com for startups. Venture capital was a who-you-know business, until AngelList made a mass introduction. Like online dating, its transparent network connects startups with accredited investors, and now even well-connected entrepreneurs are using it. Success stories include Uber, BranchOut, and GetAround--and its recent partnership with the private exchange SecondMarket lets any accredited investor put as little as $1,000 into a startup.

For speeding up the pace of software development. It's not just a social platform, it's a collaborative platform: Like a coder's wiki, it allows programmers to co-develop and share code. Facebook used it to build a bug-tracking tool; LinkedIn uses it to maintain its People You May Know and Skills & Endorsement features. GitHub also offers custom services for corporations, to let businesses collaborate on code internally.

For reimagining what conversation looks like online. Branch is a place where Twitter conversations go to live better. Where Twitter is an egalitarian free-for-all--anyone can butt in, uninvited, to any public conversation on Twitter, for better or worse--Branch fosters highly-curated conversation. Hosting a Branch is like holding a dinner party or a salon in a glass living room: anyone can watch, but only the chosen can participate. Unlike most other social networks, Branch isn't cloistered away inside its own domain or apps: Branch conversations can be embedded on other websites; chaotic Twitter conversations can be "Branched" into more serene Branch threads; and individual Branch comments can be Branched into separate conversations, as well.

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COMMENTARY: Tencent Holdings,which operates as QZone, has sharpened its focus on Southeast Asia’s mobile messaging space after it opened a joint-venture in Indonesia, the region’s largest country. The move is aimed at increasing the presence of its WeChatservice among the country’s 249 million population, according to Daily Social.

China's Top 4 Social Networks in 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)

The Chinese Internet giant has linked hands with local company MNC Media to create ‘MNC Tencent’ with the express intention of taking the WeChat app — which recently passed 300 million downloads — to the next level, and establishing a pathway to promote other services.

The company has not provided specific market data, but Tencent previously identified Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam as markets were it is seeing promising traction and has the potential for further growth.

China's Top 4 Social Network Demographics and Statistics (Click Image To Enlarge)

Tencent has been busy promoting WeChat in Indonesia through a campaign that has combined local meet-ups with celebrities, visible marketing campaigns and — as of last week — a broadcast TV ad campaign. Daily Social says that these efforts have seen its daily sign-up rate for WeChat hit an impressive 90,000 in the country.I

I love BuzzFeed, Science, ModCloth, Fab and GitHub. They definitely are on specific missions to solve a real problem or fill an interesting need in the marketplace. Not all of them are social networks, but do serve a social purpose. I didn't even know about Science, ModCloth and GitHub until I read Fast Company's post. Well worth checking these out.

If you are looking for angel capital, AngelList should be on the top of your list. If you get turned down, don't feel bad. About 97% of venture founders applying for seed capital get turned down. I got turned down at least three times.

08/27/2012

Tim Berners-Lee created the web as a better way of sharing academic research. But it soon morphed into something much, well, larger.

The irony, says Ijad Madisch, is that while reinventing so many other aspects of our life, the web never really overturned the world of academic publishing. More than 30 years on, we’re still relying on old-fashioned peer-reviewed academic journals to share research among the world’s leading thinkers.

Ipad Madisch, founder of ResearchGate (Click Image To Enlarge)

But Madisch wants to change that. In 2008, the former medical student and virology Ph.D. candidate founded a web service called ResearchGate, which seeks to replace peer-reviewed journals with a kind of Facebook for scientists.

It’s a way of bringing academics together online, but it’s also a means of instantly publishing research. Yes, there are other sites that let you self-publish academic work — most notably Cornell University’s arXiv and the Public Library of Science — but ResearchGate goes further. Part of the aim is to share research even before it’s packaged into a formal paper — including “negative data” that may show that a particular thesis isn’t worth following.

Madisch says.

“There has to be a way for scientists to share negative data, so that we’re not just making the same mistakes again and again. We spend so much time and money on experiments that we already know don’t work.”

Today, the service claims nearly 2 million registered users, and though it continues to battle the skepticism of researchers who still see traditional journals as the best way to share and validate research — not to mention build a career — it’s slowly winning over many of its most ardent critics.

Rafael Luque, a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Córdoba, who shares completed research papers as well as raw experiments and ideas says.

“It’s a great thing — and I was surprised it’s a great thing. At first, it looked like just another version of Facebook. I have nothing against Facebook. I just don’t have time for it. But ResearchGate is different. It stimulates thought.”

Madisch grew up in Germany, where he studied medicine before coming to the States for an M.D.-Ph.D. program at Harvard. It was there he dreamed up the idea of ResearchGate. He says.

“I wanted to form teams of scientists all over the world. And I wanted to go across disciplines.”

The idea was so attractive to him, he eventually decided to curtail his medical studies so he could spend more time developing it — a decision that raised the ire of his longtime adviser back in Germany.

Madisch remembers.

“He said: 'Get this firlefanz out of your head, Firlefanz means ‘shit of bird.’ So, he wanted me to get ‘this nonsense’ out of my head and focus on my academic career.'”

But back in the States, others believed in the idea, most notably Matt Cohler, a partner with big name VC firm Benchmark Capital. Cohler says.

“Despite the fact that this is what the world wide web was initially developed for, so many problems with academic research are still unsolved. All these years later, there is still enormous waste and inefficiency.”

When the two first met to discuss the project, Cohler asked Madish what he saw as his ultimate goal for ResearchGate. Madisch said.

“To win the Nobel Prize.”

And apparently, this unexpectedly enormous ambition sealed the deal.

Madish eventually quit his medical studies altogether, and four years on, he says, ResearchGate spans more than 11,000 educational institutions across the globe, and it continues to grow at a steady clip. Rafael Luque started an organic chemistry group on the site in 2008, and it has now grown to over 2,000 members.

Madisch has yet to win the Nobel Prize. But he has reached another major milestone that even he didn’t expect. About three months ago, the professor who called his idea “bird shit” signed up for ResearchGate. For years, Madisch and others at the company had used the professor’s name to set up dummy accounts on the service as a way of demonstrating how it worked. They assumed it was name that would otherwise never appear on site. But then it did.

COMMENTARY: In a blog post dated February 14, 2012, I profiled ResearchGate, and was rather impressed with the idea of bringing the world's scientific into a social network for scientists. At that time, ResearchGate had only 1.4 million registered researchers, but that number has grown to nearly 2 million. ResearchGate had only 352,100 registered researchers in the Medicine field, but today that number has ballooned to 427,550 with 7.9 million research papers.

A social networked central depository of scientific research papers is a splendid idea, which allows scientiests in numerous scientific fields to collaborate, compare research results and critique each other is very compelling. This is the type of engagement that Facebook cannot generate. True, peer-to-peer and one-to-many collaboration and engagement. In my opinion, ResearchGate definitely has the potential to become the next big thing in scientific research.

ResearchGate definitely has the potential for monetization, a sort of LinkedIn for scientific researchers, if you will. Colleges, universities, scientific institutions and associations, and corporations relying on scientific research can tap into this huge social warehouse of knowledge. All of this at a price, of course. Companies can alo recruite the smartest and brightest, maybe even complete teams working on similar research of importance to that company.

12/20/2011

North Korea displayed the body of ruler Kim Jong Il in a glass coffin surrounded by red flowers Tuesday, and his young heir was one of the first to pay respects — a strong indication that a smooth leadership transition was under way.

As the country mourned for a second day with high-level visits to Kim's body at a memorial palace and public gatherings of weeping citizens, state media fed a budding personality cult around his youngest known son and anointed heir, Kim Jong Un, hailing him as a "lighthouse of hope."

Kim's body was wrapped in red cloth and surrounded by blossoms of his namesake flowers, red "kimjongilia." As solemn music played, Kim Jong Un — believed to be in his late 20s — entered the hall to view his father's bier, surrounded by military honor guards. He observed a moment of solemn silence, then circled the bier, followed by other officials.

Kim Jung Un (fourth from right) bows to his deceased father

Outside one of the capital's main performance centers, mourners carried wreaths and flowers toward a portrait of Kim Jong Il. Groups were allowed to grieve in front of the portrait for a few minutes at a time.

U Son Hui, a Pyongyang resident, told The Associated Press.

"We will change today's sorrow into strength and courage and work harder for a powerful and prosperous nation, as our general wanted, under the leadership of the new General Kim Jong Un."

The announcement Monday of Kim's death over the weekend raised acute concerns in the region over the possibility of a power struggle between the untested son and rivals, in a country pursuing nuclear weapons and known for its unpredictability and secrecy.

Mourners cry as they meet the body of North Korean leader Kim Jong il

But there have been no signs of unrest or discord in Pyongyang's somber streets.

With the country in an 11-day period of official mourning, flags were flown at half-staff at all military units, factories, businesses, farms and public buildings. The streets of Pyongyang were quiet, but throngs of people gathered at landmarks honoring Kim.

Kim's bier was decorated by a wreath from Kim Jong Un along with various medals and orders. The body was laid out in the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, a mausoleum where the embalmed body of Kim's father — national founder Kim Il Sung — has been on display in a glass sarcophagus since his death in 1994.

The Dictator: Kim Jong-il

Kim Jong Il, the dictator who used fear and isolation to maintain power in North Korea and his nuclear weapons to menace his neighbors and threaten the U.S., has died, North Korean state television reported early Monday.

His death opens a new and potentially dangerous period of transition and instability for North Korea and northeast Asia. Mr. Kim in September 2010 tapped the youngest of his three sons, Kim Jong Eun, to succeed him, and North Korean state television on Monday said the younger Mr. Kim will lead the country.

North Korea's transition of power will be closely watched by the world as the country prepares for leadership under Kim Jong Eun. The WSJ's Deborah Kan and Seoul reporter Evan Ramstad discuss what this could mean for stability in the secretive nation.

Mr. Kim, who was 69 or 70 years old, according to varying accounts, died during a train ride on Saturday, a weeping television announcer said. He was believed to have been in ill health since suffering a stroke in 2008, and North Korean media said he experienced an "advanced acute myorcardial infarction," or heart attack.

South Korean shares tumbled along with other Asian markets in early trading Monday on concerns about potential instability in the region. South Korea's Kospi Composite down 3.1% in late-morning trading after initially dropping 4.4%. South Korea's currency, the won, fell sharply against the dollar.

Asia Today: North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il has died according to North Korean TV reports. The WSJ's Deborah Kan and reporter Alex Frangos talk about what this means for the secretive nation.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said late Sunday that the administration is "closely monitoring" reports of Mr. Kim's death, that President Barack Obama had been notified and that U.S. officials are in close touch with South Korea and Japan.

"We remain committed to stability on the Korean peninsula, and to the freedom and security of our allies," Mr. Carney said.

South Korea put its military on "high alert" and President Lee Myung-bak convened a meeting of the national security council after the news of Mr. Kim's death, the Associated Press reported.

The son of North Korea's founder, Kim Jong Il ruled the reclusive country for nearly two decades. See highlights from his life and career in this timeline. (Click Image To View Interactive Chart)

In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda called an emergency meeting of his National Security group to assess the situation. Japan has been among the countries most worried about North Korea's military ambitions and nuclear tests.

Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa said on the way into the session on Monday.

"I've issued instructions (to the defense ministry) to do everything to establish an alert, monitoring stance."

Meanwhile, roughly 20 minutes before its daily noon newscast, state broadcaster China Central Television broke in with a special report on Mr. Kim's death. It was a three-minute bare-bones account that echoed the facts from North Korea's official media, plus a chronology of the major events of his life, intercut with stock footage. Several minutes later, it aired the program again.

The state-run Xinhua news agency offered a similar just-the-facts report.

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Kim Jong-il Rises To Power

Mr. Kim took power after the death in July 1994 of his father, Kim Il Sung, who founded North Korea in 1948. The country, a declining communist industrial power when he took control, fell into abject poverty under his rule. However, Mr. Kim continued to command attention and relevance in the world by building nuclear weapons and selling other arms.

He staked his legitimacy on his father's 46-year rule. Kim Jong Il never called himself president of North Korea. Instead, he bestowed on his father after death the title of "eternal president," while he took lesser titles such as chairman of national defense and general secretary of the main political party.

Mr. Kim suffered a stroke-like illness in August 2008 and was incapacitated for two months, forcing him to begin to groom a successor.

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The Successor: Kim Jong Eun

In 2009, reports surfaced that Mr. Kim had chosen Kim Jong Eun to carry on the family's regime. Those reports were confirmed in September 2010, when Mr. Kim appointed his son, who is believed to be 27 or 28 years old, a four-star general in the North Korean military and to high-level posts in the ruling political party.

In October 2010, his first public image was released by North Korean state media, showing a striking resemblance to his father and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, the North Korean founder.

Since the public appointment, Kim Jong Eun has frequently been seen following his ailing father on "on-spot" inspections.

"We must fight with greater resolve to overcome today's crisis, behind comrade Kim Jung Eun's leadership, for another great victory for the Juche revolution," an announcer on North Korean state television said in announcing the elder Mr. Kim's death. Juche is North Korea's state ideology, which emphasizes independence and self-determination.

Kim Jong Il, far right, and Kim Jong Eun, third from right, salute while watching a military parade in September.

Although a succession plan has been laid out, conditions aren't as favorable as they were in 1994 for continuing the family's control. North Korea is much poorer and less stable now. A famine from 1995 to 1997 killed two million to three million North Koreans, aid agencies estimate, and sowed distrust in the government. North Koreans have learned more about the outside world in recent years, thanks to increasing use of cellphones and availability of DVDs.

What Kim Jong-il's Death Means To Rest of World

The potential for instability in North Korea poses difficulties for the rest of the world because the country in recent years made significant progress in the development of nuclear weapons. It conducted tests of nuclear explosives in 2006 and 2009 and is believed to possess a small number of nuclear bombs, though none that can be transported by missiles.

For its neighbors South Korea and China, Mr. Kim's death brings an additional risk: the prospect for a greater outflow of North Koreans into their countries if instability occurs.

When Mr. Kim came to power in 1994, North Korea was still trying to recover from the collapse of its economic sponsor, the Soviet Union. Famine overtook the country, but Mr. Kim relied on his father's formula for controlling North Korea's roughly 24 million people.

North Korean Embassy staff in Beijing lower their national flag on Monday to mourn Kim Jong Il's death.

He limited their access to information, ability to travel and earn wealth. And he maintained a system of gulag-like prison camps, massive in scale and horrific in condition, to instill fear.

China eventually took over as North Korea's main benefactor. Prodded by Beijing, Mr. Kim experimented with economic liberalization in 2002 by allowing some markets to form. But by 2008, Mr. Kim grew fearful that economic freedoms were eroding the power of his regime. He ordered crackdowns that included a confiscation of private savings in late 2009.

Mr. Kim also resisted efforts by China, the U.S. and other countries to persuade him to give up the nuclear-weapons research that his father started in the 1970s. The research climaxed in October 2006 when North Korea first tested a half-megaton nuclear device. It tested a more powerful nuclear explosive in May 2009, leading to stiff sanctions by the United Nations Security Council that further damaged the economy.

In 2010, North Korea revealed progress in turning enriched uranium into a source of fuel for nuclear weapons, further aggravating other countries.

Over the past year, Mr. Kim repeatedly reached out to China for more economic and security assistance and lashed out at the three countries long considered to be North Korea's main enemies: South Korea, Japan and the U.S.

COMMENTARY: Yesterday, when I heard the news that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il had died from a heart attack I knew I had to pay my respects with a stupendous blog post.

Like most Americans, we knew very little about Kim Jong Il, other than what we read about him in the newspapers or seen on television. So, I view this as a great opportunity to educate myself and you on the little midget dictator.

Official North Korean Announcement of Kim Jong-il's Death

Thanks to Google Translator, here's the original news release that was run by the state run North Korean newspaper @uriminzokkiri via Twitter announcing the death of Kim Jong Il, and translated into English using Google Translator:

"(December 19, Pyongyang KCNA) -

12:00 o'clock today, the great Leader of Korea Kim Jong-il by comrades want casually demise was a great press release was issued doe.

Lt's General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea Democratic People's Republic of KPA lt's Defense Committee, who is the commander in chief, the Great Leader Kim Jong-il was a boy you like the death of his comrades facing the county ten million hyeongeon now is in the grip of grief that can not be.

Perform the transition from a socialist powerful nation-building feats ever open phase, and the revolution of Korea overlapping challenges and triumphantly through the ordeal, and at a time when Kim Jong -minded sport he died of the WPK and the revolution is the maximum loss of 70 million Koreans, liberal world Most of the people is a great sorrow.

Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, including height, enshrined in many places in the great President Kim Il Sung statue of a comment bibun Among the nation's parents have lost a great citizen come to the locked gakgyecheung Kim moknotah comrades are singing ohyeol breaks down.

They wash with tears pouring nyeom also without making the pain of loss and sorrow that is struggling with.

"Even if only some time ago with the development of the country Thriving happy life of the people than the fire in order to be energetic activity Burley pontoon Announcing the Great General, that he believed that lest we are not alone. "

"Our country does not she, sir you, sir, leaving the leadership of the revolution, sir, love leaves us only one who thought that life is nice, do not you."

Chest pain and sorrow slicing the sky just like to sit down this vision, people more firmly in the hearts of every one always trying to get somewhere and rakgwan confidence of victory, is the tragic vow.

KPA Military Jeongilguk (Male, 43 years old):

"We follow the leadership of Comrade eun sad turn today's crisis with strength and courage win the naemyeo subject of the revolution to win even more great new haegal eoksege will struggle."

Who work in Cabinet heoseongcheol (Male, 55 years old), the "eun-minded than his revelation of our revolution today raeil must prevail," he stressed."

NOTE: Neat translation, isn't it. What a crappy translator Google has, but I am sure you can figure it out.

North Korea Mourns Kim's Death

The news of the North Korea's leader death has put the 24-million population on the verge of insanity, hyped up by unceasing TV broadcast of mass mourning throughout the country. ­North Korea's national flag is flying at half-mast today on every flagpole in the country.

Now that's what I call a whole lot of crying. Kim Jong-il's son Uen has big shoes to fill.

North Korea's New Leader: Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong-Il's successor is his youngest son, Kim Jong-un. It's time to meet the most powerful twenty-something in the world: an enigmatic basketball fanatic and four-star general with a bad case of fat cheeks and an itchy trigger finger.

In some ways, Kim Jong-un is just your normal millenial: After a stint away at school in 1998, he moved back home with his parents. Although in Kim's case the school was a Swiss boarding school, and his time back home was spent studying at North Korea's premier military academy and being groomed to succeed his father. Kim Jong-il apparently chose Kim Jong-un to succeed him over his two older brothers because they're seen as too soft and irresponsible to lead.

Unlike most people his age (including his nephew) Kim Jong-un is definitely not on Facebook. Kim has been kept so tightly under wraps—he was enrolled at his Swiss boarding school under a fake identity—that the world didn't really know what he looked like until he was "unveiled" at a military parade last year, a newly-minted four star general.

Kim Jong-Un likes to pass the time playing basketball and video games, and launching sudden military strikes against South Korea. It's thought that Kim Jong-un coordinated the bombardment of a South Korean island and the sinking of a South Korean warship last year to prove his military prowess and cement his role as the Great Successor. But he's not all business: F ormer classmates told the Washington PostKim was obsessed with basketball, had a stash of expensive Nikes and "spent hours doing meticulous pencil drawings of Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan." His taste for consumer goods has survived: Last year, a train full of televisions and watches thought to be gifts for Kim was derailed on its way way from China.

According to a former cook of Kim Jong-Il's who goes by the name Kenji Fujimoto:

"Dressed in a military outfit, the young Jong-Un glared at me with a menacing look when we shook hands."

The first time they met, Fujimoto wrote in Kim Jong-Il's Chef:

"I can never forget the look in his eyes which seemed to be saying, 'This one is a despicable Japanese.'"

Kim Jong-un, like his father, is a serious chubster. Maybe he bulked up like Robert De Niro inRaging Bull to look more like his fat grandfather, North Korea's founder Kim Il-Sung, whom he's reportedly purposely styling himself after right down to the flat-top hairstyle. Or maybe it's some unspoken rule among North Korea's regimes that all its leaders have to be exceptionally rotund, to underscore the the millions of its citizens who have starved in famines.

Looks like Jim Jung-un is a real work of art thanks to dad. Any kid that can move from civilian to four-star general, that is just plain impressive.

President Obama better not count on peace talks with this vicious, cold-blooded, and mean-spirited chubby dictator any time soon.

The North Korean Military

North Korea has the fourth largest military in the world with 1.1 million military personnel, behind China (2.25 million), U.S. (1.55 million) and India (1.35 million). South Korea's military ranks #6 with 687,000 personnel in uniform. North Korea i a military state without equal. On a per-capita basis, North Korea has more people in the active military than any other country by a wide margin.

North Korea's annual military budget in 2009 was only $5 billion, compared to $24.5 billion spent by South Korea, and the $800 billion spent by the U.S. Most of North Korea's armaments are supplied by the Russia and People's Republic of China, but are outdated.

Click Image To Enlarge

North Korea is superior to South Korea in the following aspects of their military:

No of Active Military Personnel: 1.1 million versus 687,000

Reserve Military Personnel: 4.7 million versus 4.5 million

Main Battle Tanks: 3,500+ versus 2,750

Artillery Pieces: 17,900+ versus 10,774

Air Force Fighters and Attack Aircraft: 540 versus 467 (But So Korea has the more modern aircraft supplied by the U.S.)

North Korea's nuclear bomb program is super-secret, but according to the U.S. and IAEA nuclear experts, the country has sufficient weapons grade uranium to producce between 2 to 3 nuclear bombs and is it is developing long-range ballistic missles to deliver nuclear warheads to Alaska and even Hawaii. A rogue nation like North Korea, with a nuclear arsenal, run by a much younger dictator like Kim Jong Uen means a big problem for decades to come.

Communist countries are known for their huge military parades. This video celebrates the 75th anniversary of the ruling North Korean party and shows its military forces on display. North Korean forces have a very odd way of marching, which has got to hurt after a while.

North Korea Is A Tourist Paradise

North Korea is apparently a very popular tourist destination, if you are not from the West. If you are from China or Russia, no problem. North Korea is a great place to visit, but get used to frequent blackouts in your hotel.

03/10/2011

A lot has been written about social news and howTwitter and Facebook are in the running for defining and dominating it. There’s also a lot of hand-wringing about how journalism will be disrupted by social.

I might be a bit biased as a former employee, but when it comes to social news, I think LinkedIn could become the Wall Street Journal of social news—not Twitter or Facebook. In fact, LinkedIn is expected to announce a new social news product this week. In what may or may not be a precursor to that anticipated product, a few days ago I received a curious email from “LinkedIn Headlines” (the actual email address news@linkedin.com). It was an email digest of the most shared news in my network about the Internet industry (see screenshot below). There has been no official launch of a product by that name nor have I seen anyone else write about it. But that email made me think a little more about the different types of news I consume.

I write this post from a perspective of a news addict—I wrote a guest post here on TechCrunch called Screening the News and am known on Twitter as a “tech news junkie”. No matter what the source, eventually all news is curated—just differently.

The Curation Types are:

By The Editor/writer: Blogs, physical magazines and newspapers that I read like Fortune,The Economist and The Wall Street Journal

By my network: Twitter, FlipBoard, Facebook

By Editors and Algorithms (based on “popularity” amongst writers): Techmeme

By Algorithm: Google News and then finally

By Editor and popularity of the general audience via most read, commented, emailed, retweeted, or liked: TechCrunch, nytimes.com, wsj.com

I started building long-term relationships consciously when I was “vocationally challenged” in the last dotcom bust. News was the single biggest tool I used to engage people I wanted to know well over the long-term during that time. I don’t do short-term relationships well. In other words, without knowing it, I was behaving like their personal curator over the long term. Understanding my ‘audience’s’ requirements was of paramount importance. Tending to my relationships, independent of business agendas, has always been a priority for me.

Based on my own personal experience, I think LinkedIn has a significant opportunity in an industry reeling with disruption. It has many parallels in terms of audience with the top daily print publication, The Wall Street Journal. A publication focused primarily on business, the WSJ grew circulation 1.8% last year, when the rest of the newspaper industry’s fell by 4.46%.

LinkedIn could bring curation by popularity within my network: there is absolutely nothing that does that for me today. And since it is much more structured by industry and work interests, it has the potential to become the ultimate business news filter. How could LinkedIn make social news better?

LinkedIn can suddenly become an information network, something that Twitter likes to call itself but with analytics built in based on my network

Fred Wilson wrote a post comparing Techmeme and Hacker News for the technology industry. Suddenly LinkedIn can bring users both with an ability to slice a vertical from the highly technical to more general news about companies like Apple or Google

LinkedIn could help me learn about the sources of news that is important to my network. This can lead to discovery and further curation

LinkedIn could bring a personalized newspaper that I can change based on industries that its users come from. For example, venture capital from people who have worked in venture capital.

With the recent introduction of “Skills” by LinkedIn, readers could find news that helps them develop a skill they care about. For example: If I wanted to dig deeper into learning about SEO, LinkedIn could bring stories from sites like SearchEngineLand

Based on the structured data from my profile including industry, companies, and job title, LinkedIn could recommend great articles to me

Trending—this is a no brainer. Apart from my profile information and my network, LinkedIn Headlines can also leverage industry groups I belong to on LinkedIn

Significantly enhance Twitter. LinkedIn enabled Twitter sync last year and from what I see in my network, many have autosynced their tweets and a majority, which should come as no surprise, are links. With analytics, LinkedIn could surface shared URLs that are most popular within my network

Like the Priority Inbox, LinkedIn could help me mark some users as important so that I get the news they shared first. I have many favorite reporters and respected colleagues. I would love to see their stories independent from the “wisdom of the crowd”

Since LinkedIn enables me to save a search for Jobs or get Email Alerts, it could also send me news around particular companies or the industries

LinkedIn could show me the all connections around the link/ news article—a little like Facebook’s ‘Like’ but in a “magazine” format

Can Twitter do some of this this? Maybe sharing analytics but it lacks the deep industry and profile information that LinkedIn houses to build a powerful and personal recommendation engine. Can Facebook do this? Maybe with some sharing analytics but again, it does not have the deep business profiles that LinkedIn has amassed. And personally I really do not care about Justin Bieber or Charlie Sheen, although I am sure they will pop up even in LinkedIn headlines.

COMMENTARY: If these rumors are correct, this will benefit me a lot because I am a technology blogger, and a lot of what I blog about automatically feeds into LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. I am already getting pretty good traffic to my blog for such a short period of time, but this could increase my traffic.

The whole thing sounds good, but I think this news service needs filtering and ranking to insure you don't get thousands messages that don't have revelance. We should be able to select industries, products, companies people and places that are of interest to us. This way we can receive only what we need or consider most important.

Whether LinkedIn's rumored social news service can rival The Wall Street Journal is questionnable. If you want financial and business information the WSJ is the source. I just don't believe LinkedIn can replace them for their timeliness, depth and quality.